The Wildfire was a great little phone, though many felt that HTC could have made more of it – particularly as it was always bound to draw comparisons to the excellent HTC Desire. So with the new improved Wildfire S out, we look to see what changes HTC has made to the original diminutive Wildfire.
Screen
One of the biggest problems with the original was the poor screen resolution. The Wildfire had a pretty awful 240×320 resolution that meant the phone left a lot to be desired visually. The Wildfire S improves on this with a 320×480 resolution on its 3.2” screen. Though this is not quite as high as the standard resolution of top end phones, the small screen of the Wildfire S works in its favour and looks crisp and clean at 320×480 — a big improvement on the original.
Processor
HTC have also given the new Wildfire S a new brain. The Wildfire S is loaded with a 600MHz processor, meaning it is up on the original’s 528MHz chip. It also comes with more RAM – 512MB as opposed the 324MB of the original. This all comes together to make the new Wildfire a faster, smoother phone.
Shape
The new Wildfire S drops the optical trackpad that came in the middle of the original, just like the Desire S dropped the trackpad of the Desire. It’s also slightly thinner, shorter and more compact than the original Wildfire. The biggest difference here is in height, where the omission of the trackpad has allowed it to drop 5mm to reach just over 101mm. Overall, though, the device is quite true to its roots and were it not for the missing trackpad it would take more than a cursory examination to tell it from the original.
Weight
Along with those trimmed down dimensions, the Wildfire S has a nicely trimmed down weight – 13g lighter than the original, in fact. The new Wildfire S weighs in at 105g compared to the Wildfire’s 118g. This is a definite improvement on the already thoroughly pocket-friendly original, and means that the Wildfire S is really surprisingly light for a metal-bodied phone.
Operating System
The new Wildfire also gets the excellent Android 2.3, a jump of two generations of Android on the original, which shipped with Android 2.1 Eclair. Of course, it also features HTC’s much acclaimed Sense UI, though sadly its processor isn’t quite up to running the latest version (Sense 3.0) which will ship with HTC’s flagship-phone — the Sensation.
Overall Summary
We’d say that the Wildfire S is a great improvement on the first Wildfire. It’s ultimately a tweaked and upgraded version of the Wildfire rather than anything revolutionary, but it’s a decent offering from HTC and a fine choice for anyone looking for a mid-range Android handset.
If you would like to look at prices, tariffs and deals on the HTC Wildfire S please visit Best Mobile Contracts and see if they have something on offer for you.